About Me

Friday, 12 May 2017

Archaeology without mummies and curses

It’s spring, and I’m fizzing with
joy deep-cleaning the house. Room by room. Much of the work involves lugging
furniture from walls and scrubbing the grime that’s accumulated beneath. Then
on to the walls, an easier job that involves much stretching. Then there’s the
glass cabinet, source of great happiness when choosing which glass for which
drink—though it usually involves beer. The problem is we have too much glassware and too little time to drink.
These have to be washed without breakages. Champagne flutes I abhor.

And finally there are the bookcases
and near on 2000 books. (I’m excluding the kitchen and bathrooms from this
odyssey of pleasure, for the moment at least) Each book is dusted to within an
inch of its life and pages riffled.

Riffling pages is a joy in itself – for the
first hundred books at least. I swear they sigh in pleasure and dust, and all
manner of things flutter out: old post cards, photos of people you can’t put a
name too, telephone numbers, and best of all letters with all of their
memories.

It’s akin to fossil hunting,
archaeology without mummies and curses, and the greatest of timesucks.

Each letter
has to be read and considered, photo’s scrutinised in search of clues; and
telephone numbers—is it just me who scribbles down a number but no name? I
mean, how can anyone be so stupid?

Answers on a postcard and I’ll slip
it into a book.

Some were there as impromptu
bookmarks, most were there as quick and convenient storage and immediately
forgotten. And that’s where they end up again, when the dusting is done,
because I hate throwing anything away.

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At least they’ll be waiting for the
next time I deep clean, and I’ll read them again with the same wonder and joy.
Who are these people who send me photos? And perhaps I should answer that
letter that is fifteen years old. And which idiot scribbles down phone numbers
without names?

Mike,First of all, congratulations on your two books!!! My goodness, it's been a while indeed since I last blogged. I had no idea that you had published two books. :)That's what I call commitment. Kudos to you!Let me know if you want me to write a post or blurb about your books.